Piastri: 'We have got maximum out of the car so far'

For a team with eight constructors' titles, 12 drivers' championships, 183 Grands Prix wins ánd sky-high ambitions, sixth place in the 2023 title race is extremely meagre. In fact, the Woking-based team has to look down in the standings rather than up, as the gap to Alpine (fifth) continues to widen. Nevertheless, Oscar Piastri thinks his team has performed to its maximum so far.

Piastri, himself debuting in Formula 1 this season, captured five points. His teammate Lando Norris picked up 12. A stark contrast to the drivers of the top teams, to which McLaren also wants to belong again. But it is no secret that CEO Zak Brown' s team has missed the mark in terms of car design. As a result, it will be points scrambling.

McLaren knows the areas for improvement

The car has been rather idiosyncratic this season. When it's cool, the McLaren functions fine. If it's hot, or it's a track with a lot of slow corners, it more often than not doesn't run. This problem is known to the team, then at the factory it is hard at work looking for improvements. In the meantime, it is optimising as much as possible.

Speedcafe quotes Oscar Piastri on the first months of the season. "I feel like, as a team, we’ve done a very good job of getting the most out of the package we have at the moment. I think the last three weekends, really, we’ve had five out of six Q3 appearances – and I was 11th in the one that didn’t make it. So it’s been a good string of races for the team on Saturdays."

As we know, it is only on Sunday that the points are distributed. Then the McLaren often falls back. "Sundays, I think we still need some work, but we know that and we’re working on it,” Piastri conceded. Obviously, the conditions the last few weekends haven’t been standard either, so I think maybe we’ve capitalised on that," said the Australian.